Electronic Purchase Orders Saving Time, Reducing the Cost of Government
Update: August 29, 2014
The successes of the Project to implement Electronic Purchase Orders at CDOT are featured on page 16 of the August 2014 report entitled: "Pits and Peeves 2.0, Progress in Motion Report -- Cutting Red Tape in Government: “Making government more efficient, effective and elegant.”
April 16, 2013
The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) now offers a process that allows purchase order workflow, approval, and distribution via e-mail without the need for manual printing and signature.
This improvement streamlines the procurement process, saves money and reduces the cost of government. These electronic purchase orders replace the former paper-based purchase orders, eliminating the need for these purchase orders to be handled by the CDOT mailroom. Additionally, these electronic purchase orders reduce the amount of handling needed by CDOT Purchasing Division personnel.
This new process is available to vendors who meet prescribed requirements. It currently applies only to purchase orders between $5,000 and $100,000.
A pilot project for the concept of electronic purchase order approvals was put in place October 1, 2012. It worked well enough that it was included in CDOT’s business practices beginning January 1, 2013. By the end of February, approximately 30% of all purchase orders approved were issued electronically, amounting to about 30% of all dollars of purchase orders for the month.
The electronic purchase order system is one of the components of the CDOT Contracting Improvement Initiative (CII), a multi-year program designed to improve efficiency, timeliness, and effectiveness of all aspects of CDOT’s contracting and procurement processes. CII is part of CDOT’s overall efforts to improve business processes for better customer service and efficiency. Additionally, this supports Governor Hickenlooper’s initiative to make government more effective, efficient and elegant.
CII coordinator Cheryl Wright said everything has gone well to this point. “We’re pleased that the electronic purchase order system is being used by more of our vendors each month,” she noted. “It took a lot of hard work to make this process a reality. This is a major success story.”
She said CDOT hopes to receive approval in the next several months to allow the electronic system to handle purchase orders larger than $100,000. She also hopes that this system is the first step toward eventual approval of an all-electronic contracting system, as well.
The team that compiled CDOT’s requirements for the new process was composed of Johnie Abad, Bob Corman, Mike Moore, and Margo Wilson from CDOT’s Procurement organization; Rick Riddick from the Governor’s Office of Information Technology; Angela Lujan and Jonathan Price from CDOT’s Accounting organization, and Earl Selvage, Region 6 Business Office, representing CDOT regional business offices, and Alvaro Duran from CDOT’s Print Center.